Alphabet subsidiary Google on Monday launched a bid to get Europe’s second-highest court to annul a record 4.34-billion euro ($5.1 billion) fine related to its Android operating system and blasted European Union antitrust regulators for “ignoring” Apple.
In July 2018, Google was fined a record $5.1 billion fine by the European Union for abusing its market dominance in mobile phone operating systems. The EU imposed the record penalty after finding that Alphabet required smartphone manufacturers to pre-install Google’s search and browser apps devices using its Android operating system, otherwise they would not be allowed to use its Google Play online store and streaming service.
The European Commission fined Google in 2018, saying that it had used Android since 2011 to thwart rivals and cement its dominance in general internet search.
“The Commission shut its eyes to the real competitive dynamic in this industry, that between Apple and Android,” Google’s lawyer Meredith Pickford told the court.
“By defining markets too narrowly and downplaying the potent constraint imposed by the highly powerful Apple, the Commission has mistakenly found Google to be dominant in mobile operating systems and app stores, when it was in fact a vigorous market disrupter,” he said.
Pickford said Android “is an exceptional success story of the power of competition in action”.
MacDailyNews Take: Mobile Operating System Market Share Worldwide, August 2021:
• Android 72.74%
• iOS 26.42%
You cannot abuse a monopoly when you don’t have a monopoly.
BTW: Google is a thief.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Maybe the sanctimonious company should fine the EU a few billion for ignoring Apple.
Maybe the sanctimonious Aussie should stay locked down in the house as the Australian storm troopers comb the streets arresting anyone outside for walking a dog. BTW the USA is STILL FREE by Covid comparison. Liberal citizens get what’s coming to them by Liberal OPPRESSIVE governments…
Road Warrior the Almighty Sanctimonious Leftist lecturing the USA WRONGLY as a terrorist nation, what is your nation doing now to its own people?
“To watch what is happening in Australia right now is to watch a once-liberally democratic nation devolve into outright tyranny. Citizens in New South Wales and Victoria are being locked inside their homes and monitored by police, and anyone who dares protest the states’ strict coronavirus lockdown measures faces imprisonment, hefty fines, and even brutal physical attacks by law enforcement — all in response to a relatively minor outbreak of new cases among a population that is largely vaccinated.”
“Australia’s zero-COVID approach is a recipe for keeping its society locked down forever.”
Meanwhile, Australian police are terrorizing and beating their own citizens, story here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/what-s-happening-in-australia-will-happen-in-the-us-if-we-too-lose-the-plot-on-covid/ar-AAOSDQh?ocid=entnewsntp
iOS App Stores – Apple 100%
Poor Google…..quick somebody call the WHAHHHMBULANCE!!!!!
This will likely stick. It is similar to Microsoft requiring the use of an integrated browser (Internet Explorer) years ago. Microsoft tried to fight it but lost on all fronts as it was a blatant use of the huge installed base to force people to use Microsoft’s browser.
Google’s Android has a huge installed base no matter what Google says. Forcing people to use their search engine is no different than Microsoft years ago. Google forcing others (other companies in this case) is the same.
Apple is different. Apple only requires its apps on Apple devices. Then, if you want you can install other search engines and browsers too. Plus, if I remember correctly you can uninstall most of those Apple apps. (I don’t bother. I have lots of room on my iPhones.)
“Apple only requires its apps on Apple devices.”
You mean the devices it sold and are now the property of others, forbidding programs it doesn’t own and is the property of others?
As for Google, so be it.